Divectionist
Contributor
I am wondering whether other SB members around the world experience the same issues I encounter with some dive shops. I deal with around 4-6 shops for various bits and the below is very common.
Some are better than others, but few care to do a good job and there is a general sense of slack and some odd air of cheerful, unapologetic indifference about many of them, with disorganisation behind the scenes very apparent. You would think that in an industry where high standards, conscientiousness and safety should rank highly, sloppiness is below average. Yet I feel like it is the messiest industry I deal with.
They never ever answer their emails.
Shops more often than not fail to respond to email enquiries. It is like you need to beg for attention or service as a customer. This must result in a lot of lost business for these shops, and most of them do not appear like they wouldn't need it. As much as I would like to form a relationship with an LDS to order in equipment and pay a bit of a premium for it, I now exclusively rely on 2 online shops thousands of km away.
They are forgetful and will not follow up.
Even after you pick up the phone (since emails are futile) to schedule picking up a couple tanks "at 9am next Tuesday", a few days in advance, it happened a couple of times across two different operators that I rock up and they don't know about it, particularly annoying if they need extra notice for Nitrox or are out of filled tanks with nobody there to fill any. So you miss your dive if it was time sensitive. You know what that means if you haven't been able to make your schedule align with decent condition for weeks. Similarly, they will say they'll let you know when something arrives, and it sits there for days until you call to see why it is late. Or they'll say they'll let you know when the next night dive or whatever is scheduled, but nah.
They are randomly not there during their opening hours.
Also happened twice. You get to the shop during their usual opening hours to pick up or drop off something and the door is shut. Nobody around. Nobody answers the phone. No sign in the window. You'll get through and some mobile number and they'll be there in 2 hours, 'sorry'. Sorry indeed, if I just wasted 60min drive time and 15mins circling the shop like a thief.
Their systems are outdated.
Calendars, POS systems, record keeping, customer forms, everything seems more backwards, paper-based and manual than one would expect in 2019. There is clearly a lack of investment or appreciation of the long-term benefits of running a proper digital setup. It is probably behind some of the above issues, relying on people's memory rather than reminders and CRMs. The apparently high turnover of inexperienced staff/DMs does not help either. I guess a lot of them are seasonal, low paying jobs and not everyone has enough passion to worry about the level of perceived service.
I am interested to hear about your general experience. Do you have a dream LDS to fall back on?
Some are better than others, but few care to do a good job and there is a general sense of slack and some odd air of cheerful, unapologetic indifference about many of them, with disorganisation behind the scenes very apparent. You would think that in an industry where high standards, conscientiousness and safety should rank highly, sloppiness is below average. Yet I feel like it is the messiest industry I deal with.
They never ever answer their emails.
Shops more often than not fail to respond to email enquiries. It is like you need to beg for attention or service as a customer. This must result in a lot of lost business for these shops, and most of them do not appear like they wouldn't need it. As much as I would like to form a relationship with an LDS to order in equipment and pay a bit of a premium for it, I now exclusively rely on 2 online shops thousands of km away.
They are forgetful and will not follow up.
Even after you pick up the phone (since emails are futile) to schedule picking up a couple tanks "at 9am next Tuesday", a few days in advance, it happened a couple of times across two different operators that I rock up and they don't know about it, particularly annoying if they need extra notice for Nitrox or are out of filled tanks with nobody there to fill any. So you miss your dive if it was time sensitive. You know what that means if you haven't been able to make your schedule align with decent condition for weeks. Similarly, they will say they'll let you know when something arrives, and it sits there for days until you call to see why it is late. Or they'll say they'll let you know when the next night dive or whatever is scheduled, but nah.
They are randomly not there during their opening hours.
Also happened twice. You get to the shop during their usual opening hours to pick up or drop off something and the door is shut. Nobody around. Nobody answers the phone. No sign in the window. You'll get through and some mobile number and they'll be there in 2 hours, 'sorry'. Sorry indeed, if I just wasted 60min drive time and 15mins circling the shop like a thief.
Their systems are outdated.
Calendars, POS systems, record keeping, customer forms, everything seems more backwards, paper-based and manual than one would expect in 2019. There is clearly a lack of investment or appreciation of the long-term benefits of running a proper digital setup. It is probably behind some of the above issues, relying on people's memory rather than reminders and CRMs. The apparently high turnover of inexperienced staff/DMs does not help either. I guess a lot of them are seasonal, low paying jobs and not everyone has enough passion to worry about the level of perceived service.
I am interested to hear about your general experience. Do you have a dream LDS to fall back on?